Cognitive strategy use and motivation in underachieving students.

Underachieving students perform more poorly on academic measures than what is expected of them based on their ability. A literature review and two empirical studies are presented in this multiple manuscript dissertation to extend research on underachievers by applying current work in cognition and motivation to understand their ability-achievement discrepancy. The literature review considered several cognitive (lack of cognitive strategy use, metacognition, self-regulation) and motivational hypotheses (maladaptive attributional patterns, learned helplessness, self-efficacy) that may help explain why students underachieve. The review concluded with a discussion of a framework to understand why these students do not perform at levels commensurate with their ability. The first empirical study examined the relations of self-competence, strategy use on a memory task, and achievement for 68 middle and high school students identified as underachieving or learning disabled and comparison students achieving at grade level. ANOVAs showed that students identified as underachieving and learning disabled reported lower cognitive self-competence than did comparison students. The learning disabled students indicated lower social and general self-competence, as well as poorer performance and use of less sophisticated strategies on the memory task than did comparison and underachieving students. Regressions showed that type of strategy used was the best predictor of performance on the task, and group membership did not predict achievement. Cluster analysis indicated that there were intraindividual differences in the patterns of motivational and cognitive variables that cut across the a priori groups of children. The second empirical study examined the self-reported motivational and cognitive correlates of achievement for 603 college chemistry students, particularly for female and minority students who earned lower grades in the course than their classmates. Regressions showed that the motivational and cognitive variables helped explain grade beyond gender or ethnic group membership. Underachievers tended not to be strategic or to endorse adaptive motivational beliefs, while overachievers seemed to compensate for their low aptitude with greater strategy use and adaptive motivational beliefs. The findings provide evidence for the importance of cognitive and motivational variables in models of student learning, and suggest a need to reconsider the construct of underachievement.Ph.D.Cognitive psychologyEducationEducational psychologyPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/130173/2/9712133.pd